Sobek’s Cult
A Poem of Racquetball’s Founder Joseph Sobek, and the Sport’s Rise and Fall in Popularity with His Life
In 1949 Joseph Sobek was a humble rubber plant employee.
Mr. Sobek loved sports, but found handball too oily, and squash too coyly.
He was inspired by the spirit of American innovation.
Brilliant Sobek invented Racquetball, marrying power with precision and ball placement inspiration.
Like a type of evangelical, Sobek sought to spread Racquetball as the good word.
He preached six-walled court salvation to the American herd.
Holy Sobek rode the revival circuit to proclaim the creed.
The message took hold, and his faithful built temples in YMCAs with miraculous speed.
Pastor Sobek fashioned the sport's original rubber ball.
By the 1970s, ten million faithful weekly players rise to the call.
Even the King built his own Racquetball court.
Elvis himself loved the sport.
Talk of possible Olympic inclusion spread far and wide.
Thanks to Saint Sobek, the faithful swelled with pride.
Then suddenly the great Reverend Sobek died in 1998.
His gospel's followers dwindled soon after his mortal fate.
Today the holy sport counts barely three million weekly worshippers strong.
Nothing near the numbers of the pickleball throng.
Once beloved Racquetball, the sacred game of Sobek, its prophet prince.
No longer the golden apple, today just another fading quince.